Westside, Kiwi's and Training OCD!!!! welcome to my world...

haha.. yeah defo dyskee-
cheers iain.. really enjoyed the session to be honest..!
and yeah power shrugs are class.. gonna use dumbells now and again for them too..

just been doin some reading on some westside stuff...and havin a look at some routines which can help with strongman training.. think im gonna give some form of this a go sometimes too!! really need  a gym with some strongman stuff in! really wanna give it a go

Day 1 - Max Effort (ME) squat/deadlift
Squat/deadlift/good morning - Using one of these exercises or a variation of them for no more than 3 consecutive weeks work up from a warm up in sets of 3 until 3 repetitions are no longer possible and switch to a single rep working up to 4 single repetitions of between 90-100% of your max.
Lower back work - Choose from glute-ham raises, reverse hyper-extensions, half deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts (SLDLs), hyper-extensions or cable pulls - 4 x 8-10 (weighted if need be to stay within rep range)
Abs - Any form of rectus abdominus work - 4 x 8-12
Lat work - Any form of upper back work such as wide grip chins, pull downs, barbell rows, cable rows - 4 x 8-10
Day 2- Max Effort (ME) Bench press
Bench Press of any variation working from a triple to a single.
Tricep work - Any form of core strength tricep work such as close grip bench, JM presses, Tate presses, lying dumbbell extensions - 4 x 5-10
Cable pushdowns - A variety of cable attachments may be used (flat bar, V bar, rope) - 4 x 8-12
Shoulder work - choice of either lateral or front raises - 4 x 10-12
Lat work - as above - 4 x 8-10
Biceps - Pick any bicep exercise of your choice - 3 x 8-10
Day 3- Dynamic Effort (DE) Squat
Box squat 8-12 doubles with 45-65% of 1RM
Lower back work - as Day 1
Side bends (or variation of external oblique training) - 4 x 8-12
Neck work
Day 4- Dynamic Effort (DE) Bench press
Speed bench 8-10 triples with 45-46% 1 RM
Tricep work - as Day 2
Pushdowns - as Day 2
Lat work - as Day 1
Biceps - as Day 2

above is an example of a westide routine for strength trainin..
wanted to ask some questions for those of u 'in the know' with regards to strength trainin and those who are familiar with this type of trainin, which im sure will be a fair few of u!
1- oin the dynamic effort days, i take the reps are performing 'quickly',i.e. like an explosive rep, going for speed??
2- on these DE days, do i stay with the same weight for all of the sets? it says to stay within 45-64% on squat day, and 45-46% ( im sure htis wrong??) on bench day!! so how will i know when to progress with  the weight on DE day, as the weight will be light anyway, so how will i determine when it is time to increase weight?
3-with ME squat/deadlift day, do i just rotate week after wk which one i do.. so wk 1 may be squat, wk 2 will be deads, wk 3 good mornings, wk 4 squat again?i thought bein it a strength based routine, both squat and dealift would be trained wk after wk??

any info and help would be appreciated guys..

cheers

1- oin the dynamic effort days, i take the reps are performing 'quickly',i.e. like an explosive rep, going for speed??
 
Yes. However this is true of any rep you do. Power and speed should be prominant during any major lifts.


2- on these DE days, do i stay with the same weight for all of the sets? it says to stay within 45-64% on squat day, and 45-46% ( im sure htis wrong??) on bench day!! so how will i know when to progress with  the weight on DE day, as the weight will be light anyway, so how will i determine when it is time to increase weight?
 
The DE days are not about progression in the sense normally used. You'll progress when you hiot pb's and the weight for a given % increases. Normally you would keep the same laod through out a session and cycle the intensity over a training block, ie. wk1 50%, wk2 55%, or any way you want. The % are just a guide to get you started. Nothing more.

3-with ME squat/deadlift day, do i just rotate week after wk which one i do.. so wk 1 may be squat, wk 2 will be deads, wk 3 good mornings, wk 4 squat again?i thought bein it a strength based routine, both squat and dealift would be trained wk after wk??

This is trickier. personally I think this is not worth it for most people, ie rotating. When I did a lot of westside inspired training I ended up ditching seprate speed and me days for sq and dl and went with one session. The rotation was heavy deadlifting light squating (or box squating) and visa versa. For bench I would do a heavy lift followed by lighter work, but would bench heavy and straight at least once a month. I would pull heavy and straight once a month and when it was heavy squat me I would always squat straight. Further I would not always do singles but would just do a heavy session in whatever rep range or volume I felt appropriate. The other 2 sessions I would just do lighter assistance work for upper and lower body. This actually then evolved a bit further till my current plan. Which now dosn't look like 'westside' training at all.




'Westside' is all well and good, but I think most will do as well or better on other simpler plans. That dose not mean that you carn't take some ideas and use them in said plan, rather that a basic 'westside plan' is tough to get right. As you can see from my example I needed to radically change my plan away from the normal template to get it to work better for me.

I'd personally suggest you continue with a more 'basic' approach. As well when you get assess to strongman equipment that'll be out of the windo anyway as you'll have to fit in event training.

Now I'd concentrate on getting strong and big. Your current training seems to be heading you in the right direction. What you need to do is to learn how to manage your load and volume on the big 3 (4 in your case as OHP is vital to strongman).

just the man!!
cheers mate
yeah i understand wat ur sayin..i did think that only doin deads/ squats once avery 3 wk etc (heavy) would be slightly dettrimental on the stregnth gain side of htings..
i have a few other things i have copied and pasted which i have looked at but im findin it much more difficult to make a plan for this type of traiin.. if i was just trainin to be a powerlifter then i could probably do it as there are many of u on here and the plans, look fairly simple as u focus on the 3 lifts etc.. however, strongmen dont really train bench as a main lift, but i want to! so i need to incorporate this into it too, and keep it as a priority lift etc..
also like the idea of using push/ pull in the same sessions like used in the above routine for bench days etc.. with the bench work, then delts, lats and bis.. i like the set up there!

anyway cheers iain.. was hoping u'd pop by!!

On the theme of Westside here are 3 articles from Jim Wendler of Elitefts.com. Plenty of good ideas in them. If can find any stuff on his 3/2/1 training that would also be good.


http://www.elitefts.com/documents/Triumvirate.htm%3C/a%3E


http://www.elitefts.com/documents/bench_like_a_stripper.htm


http://www.elitefts.com/documents/causal_friday.htm

There are lots og good thing to take aways from the writing sof Louie Simmons a la 'Westside', but that dosn't mean you have to jump into doing ME, DE bands and box squats. Infact that's not really what westside training is about .


If you want to read some simple effective training that would lend itself to strongman check out TONY's journal. For a good powerlifting journal check out Fat Petes, and for a powerlifting journal that is heavily 'Westside' based check out Cricket Fire. He recently trained at Westside and would answer some of your questions!

nice one cheers mate! ill go check some of them out now

cheers for the help fella..
gonna give those links a read too :-)

you changing your workout style to westside then?

shift from bodybuilding to powershirtlifting or just for a strength increase?

im just gonna try base my training more on strength from now on mate.. if i wanna diet down in the future then i may, but im lookin to possibly get into some strongman stuff in the future.. not yet tho of course!! but it is more up my st i think..
unsure on the westside front as iain has said, i dont really need t follow somehtin that complicated etc.. but im gonna be gearin my trainin over to a more strength based porogram as time progresses.. still with a lot of BBin there too, but the core of each workout will be strength based

Things are looking good mate, just had a first propa catch up on your journal.. one question wtf are pinwheel curls lol??

how do? hoe things are good over in ehypt fella.
pinwheels are hammers but brough across the body.. probably the way most do hammer curls, but that is their real name!1
cheers fella.
yeah stuffs goin well at the moment re. trainin!! bit sore here and there but im gettin thru it!!
hows the trainin goin out there for ya?

You feelin any better mate? Did you drop the tren x or anything in the end?

Well there you go ive learnt somthing new, I prefere pulling up and across as its a better peak on the bicep that way.

Im a bit bord out here tbh, havnt found a good gym to train and my diets shocking - sure it will come together soon though.

scott- hope so mate.. yeah will prob take a bit of time before u feel completely settled etc.. great experience for u tho mate!! yeah i prefer the pinwheels too.. can be a bit more strict with them i feel and i feel it much more than reg hammer curls..

rio-
 yeah ive dropped the t roid mate and so far ive been feelin a bit better today, dropped it on sat so if it was that then coolio.. its just really uncomfortable, cant get comfy a lot fo the time.. but hopefully it will stay away now.. feels a fair bt better today so im off t the gym in a bit havin had the weekend off!!

today im gonna experiment with a new 'bench' day.
will be strength based sets for bench, so will be high sets of low reps working up to probably my 3RM for a few sets folloowed by some tri assistance work, upper back assistance work and biceps.
will update when im done.

ok..
Today:

Bench-warm ups, working up to,
130kx3
135kx3
140kx3
150kx2+ an assisted, sloppy 3rd rep!
i think i should have gone to 145k. but 140k felt very easy! :-(

Skulls-
55kx10,6,6 ---> adopted the rest pause for these. bit light as i got too mnay reps, but its all good in the hood..

Db Rows-
40kx30 each arm ---> this was horrid. the uni gym only goes to 40k so i thought i would just go to failure then do 1 v strict and slow set after with holds at the top. the 30 reps was a bit overkill, but felt good on the heart.. :-(
40kx10 ---> v strict and slow, with holds at the top.

Face Pulls-
35kx12
35kx10

Pinwheel Curls-
26kx 10,5,3 ---> bit light, supersetted last set with some straight bar BB curls, 35k x 7.

all in all a v good sessoin. definately think for me,strength trainin is the way t go. i am trying to keep some BBin element to it too,e.g.
today was push pull thru the horizontal plain, my next upper session will be push pull thru the vertical plane!

but felt good on the bench, missed the last rep on 150 due to  my right shoulder, felt weak, so may add in some shoulder assistance wk on this day aswell as the other upper session.

Glad your feelin a bit better mate, cracking benching as well

cheers dude..
yeah stomach's feelin much better now!!
maybe it was the t roid then.. hard t tell, it may have just been somethin that happens for a few days and was gonna pass anyway!! shame..i may start the t roid in again and if it starts up again then ill know!!
im glad its gone hto.. just made me feel like sh1t!!!

Lotta fun stuff within westside.... I used to use a few exercises and theories within my training when I was employing something of a mix/hybrid routine. Really enjoyed it (altho I wasn't doing proper westside, was still more BBing angled). A few of the strength guys my way got me watching some of Louis' vids.

yeah im tryin to keep it slightly BB oriented too.. but i wanna concentrate on bringin up my strength big time!!goals have changed slightly so strength is gonna be the main focus, on the first lifts of every session anyway.. and the rest will be heavy ish assistance work to bring about some nice hypertrphy!!
i wanna get more into it tho.. been readin quite a lot of stuff on westside etc etc... this is gonna sound daft seein as i havce just said i have been readin about it, but who is louis? these bids could be of some help to me... on youtube?!!

Louis Simmons... he is westside basically. The vids are funny. He can talk the back legs off a donkey and loves his numbers and %ages. Some of the lifting is good to watch tho. I found the vids made understanding it all a bit easier than reading thru the plethora of pages there are on it.

I gather the critisisms on it centre around their claimed heavy gear use and supreme shirts. And you need to bare in mind that the system is based all around the fact that they use very strong shirts and suits etc so how well it all crosses over to a more standard way of lifting I do not know.

nice one.. ill check out some of the vids on youtube then..
thats one thing.. as much as i wanna get into strength based trainin, i dont wanna start wearin a shirt and suit etc.. just seems like too much effort!! haha..

cheers mate